in the hands of the master potter

I Cry Out ‘Violence’ (Part 5 of 5)

To summarise this series, if you remember or just prefer to read the summary rather than each separate post, we looked at the not-so-comfortable passages in the Bible where violence and hatred is endorsed by those who are deemed as Godly people; people after God’s own heart. We dealt with three questions:

1. Why did these people speak like this?

2. Are we allowed to speak like this?

3. Why has God kept a record of this?

Firstly, we saw that people in the Bible, whether in the Old Testament or the New, are not perfect. They got angry, they felt rage, they weren’t favourable towards their oppressors and they sometimes wished harm on those who were torturing and mocking them. That isn’t to be condoned. In fact, when those same people were given power to execute their violent and merciless wishes, they relented and forgave. They were convicted in their own hearts and, instead, dealt with their oppressors in love and kindness.

Secondly, we pulled the cover away off some of our otherwise hidden agendas and noticed that our questions of permissibility aren’t a seeking after a more holy life but, rather, how far can we go and still be in the green zone, the okay zone. What we ended up realising is that God calls us to draw nearer to Him and be like Him rather than put a fence and tell us, “Just don’t go too far.”

Thirdly, and finally, we pondered the question of why the Bible would keep a record of the sins of its heroes. The simple answer was that God did and does not show favouritism. The records He kept were recollections of what really happened not dramatised stories.

I hope this series answered some questions out there. More so, I hope this series fulfilled its purpose of making us desire more to read and enjoy the genuine truths and lessons we find in the pages of the Bible when we embrace them rather than explain them away.